Dominant Thurston takes Historic qualifying race two win

Ed Thurston went some way to overcoming his disappointment from driveshaft problems in yesterday’s HSCC Historic Formula Ford Championship race by winning the second qualification race in fine style.

Elden driver Thurston finished 16.6s ahead of Glenn Eagling in second place, a gap which belied his lowly starting position.

Starting from twelfth place, Thurston took his time to work his way up through the field, avoiding rash moves. After three laps he was third, but it was not until half-distance that he hit the front. He was not seriously challenged after that.

Eagling had started from pole, but Tim Brise did take the lead briefly early in the first lap before he was reeled back in. Eagling then had rather a lonely race with a safe distance between himself and the chasing group.

Brise, Stuart Kestenbaum and Chris Stuart were the usual suspects in the chasing pack. Stuart had started second but lost time early on with a flat-spotted tyre, dropping to sixth.

Despite this, Stuart set some very fast laps and clawed his way back up to third, relegating Brise to fourth. Kestenbaum then got the better of Brise briefly, but could not quite make it stick, settling for fifth place.

That chasing group was helped by narrowly avoiding a yellow flag situation late on. Michael Richings and John Slack banged wheels and spun across the circuit just before Hall Bends, but were able to move into a safe spot.

Kevin Stanzl and Andrew Wiggins were also part of the chasing group at different points. Stanzl was sixth but Wiggins had a moment on lap 3 and was lucky to get back into qualification for the championship race, from which only the top 12 finishers progress.

Wiggins recovered to 10th overall in his Titan Mk6, finishing behind John Hayes-Harlow, Alex Meek and James Lovett. John Roberts and Ross Drybrough earned the final berths for race two later today.